The present invention is generally directed to a urine deflector, and, more particularly, to a urine deflecting toilet seat attachment removably mountable to an underside of a toilet seat to prevent urine from splashing, squirting, or leaking between the rim of a toilet bowl and an attached toilet seat.
During normal, everyday use of toilets, the exterior and rim of a toilet bowl are often contaminated for well-known reasons. For example, when men urinate from the standing position, misdirected and splashed urine builds up on the toilet bowl rim, and potentially drips down along the exterior of the toilet bowl. Alternatively, some men elect to urinate from the sitting position. For example, elderly men unable to stand for prolonged periods of time may elect to urinate from the sitting position. As another example, some men may elect to urinate from the sitting position to maximize urine containment within the bowl. However, if a man does not properly direct his urine stream while in the sitting position, urine may still splash, squirt, or leak between the toilet bowl rim and the toilet seat thereby contaminating the toilet bowl rim and exterior (if urine drips down from the rim).
Further, some side effects of ailments often experienced by elderly men include difficulty controlling urine stream. Prescribed medications for elderly men often result in similar side effects, ultimately leading to urine splashing, squirting, or leaking between the toilet bowl rim and the toilet seat. As another example, a percentage of healthy younger males become erect while sleeping and need to urinate upon waking up, while still having an erection. Therefore, they generally cannot urinate while standing. However, even upon sitting down, the erection causes urine to stream near the top of the toilet bowl and can flow through the gap between the toilet bowl rim and the toilet seat or run up and over toilet bowl, onto floor and/or clothing. As yet another example, young children, transitioning from “training” toilet seats to standard seats, also tend to sit very close to the front of the seat due to their size and initial fear of falling in. This often also leads to urinating through the gap between the toilet seat and the toilet bowl rim. Urine can also hit the toilet bowl close to the top and run up and over the toilet bowl, onto the floor and/or clothing. Generally, the task of cleaning a toilet is time consuming and understandably unpleasant.
Previous attempts at solving this problem include providing toilet seats having integral urine deflectors or securely fixing urine deflectors to toilet seats. However, one drawback associated with integrating a urine deflector into the toilet seat is that it requires manufacturing of new toilet seats, and is not usable with existing toilet seats. Another problem associated with fixedly securing a urine deflector to the toilet seat arises when the urine deflector itself gets contaminated. Because the urine deflector is fixedly secured to the toilet seat, the urine deflector requires cleaning at the toilet itself.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to manufacture an improved urine deflector, removably attachable to the toilet seat. Accordingly, a user may merely replace the urine deflector once the deflector becomes contaminated. Alternatively, a user may remove the urine deflector from the toilet seat, separately clean/decontaminate the urine deflector away from the toilet, and reattach the clean/decontaminated urine deflector thereafter.